I'm married to a high school teacher. It's too late by then to instill a dedication to architecture that would require you work for free and forgo having a dog. Good luck with the young mold-able minds in elementary school.

You don't think about what kind of car an architect should drive, what kind of clothes an architect should wear, what kind of house an architect should live in, what kind of books an architect should read, what kind of music an architect should listen to, what kind of investments an architect should make, what kind of sports an architect should follow, what kind of furniture an architect should sit on, what kind of hobbies an architect should engage in, and on and on..................................

Architecture is hard, not everyone is going to be good at it and not everyone is going to enjoy it. I can't decide if the O.P. is looking for some commiseration or is looking for permission to be upset about the current status of their career in architecture and the correlated effects on their life.

Cheer up, buck up or move on to something else, you do not have to do one thing for your career your whole working life.

I've always had one foot in and one foot out. I keep going cause at least it's interesting and challenging.

Nov 14, 18 1:03 pm

thatsthat

Glad I’m not the only one. It seems that my coworkers are all in it for the long haul, but I’m on the fence. Still thinking about some other career or going back to school - even though I know it’s a terrible idea.

It's what I'm good at. Not what I enjoy. Not what I'm dedicated to. There are for more important things in life for your dedication. Architecture is a means to an end not the end itself. That would be miserable and those people are masochistic.